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Chapter Thirteen

Emma

I am going to get my reward afterwards , I repeated over and over in my head. I was nervous. No, the word nervous didn’t cut it, but I trusted Ryder, just as I’d trusted him to get my sister.

He had.

I figured this wasn’t going to kill me. Most likely, it wouldn’t even leave a mark, but he’d said it was going to sting like a motherfucker, and I trusted his word on that as well. Still, I wanted this, wanted his hands on me any way he needed them.

I could see it in his face, the banked tension radiating from him, as I cupped his cheeks.

The thin layer of stubble along his jaw was surprisingly soft.

I leaned in and pressed my lips to his. My hands were shaking, but so was he, tension thickening the air, seeming to encompass both of us in the same sphere.

He was right—we both needed this, and whatever came after, we needed that as well.

I’d spent too much time ruminating over what happened the last time I was in his room, wondering where it had gone wrong and why he’d kicked me out, thinking about his cock under my palm through the denim of his pants.

I’d had boyfriends. They came in different sizes, and bigger wasn’t always better as far as a woman’s body was concerned, but I wanted Ryder and everything about him. Everything he’d said told me that despite his alpha status, he was no animal.

He was complex, with a personality that held nuances built up through all the experiences in his life. He’d said his family were all assholes and hadn’t even cared when he was rounded up and tossed in here. No one deserved such cruelty.

Not Ryder, or Sloane.

No, I wouldn’t think about that now. Sloane was safe and with Jace, bonding with him. There would be no civilized wedding, or a stylish apartment with fancy restaurants on the doorstep. She would be here in the zone under the protection of a powerful man.

I lifted my head and let my hand slip away.

This was down to him now. I’d said what I wanted and had accepted all of him.

I had no crystal ball to tell me about tomorrow, but if my life had taught me anything, it was to grab opportunities when they came and to experience life, because you never knew when it would be ripped away.

If I shied away from this, I would regret it the whole of my life.

“Do you think you can be still?” he asked, brushing my hair behind my ear, exposing me to his critical assessment.

His eyes, I surmised, saw far too much.

“I-I don’t know. I’ve never really thought about it.”

“How about being tied? Restrained? Do you think you can handle that?”

Heat pooled in my belly, and I swallowed.

His eyes lowered to track the movement, then lowered to where I was spread around his much larger body.

I was naked. Ryder was still fully clothed, which added an edge to the situation, making it indecorous, and I liked it very much.

“Baby, I want to do wicked things to you,” he’d said during our first intimate time together.

I trusted that he did and wanted every wicked, depraved imagining in his alpha mind played out on my body.

I wanted to be tied down, restrained, vulnerable before him.

He could, if he chose to, do anything to me, even without restraints.

His power over me was absolute, due to a built body and an unquestionable strength many times greater than mine.

Yet even knowing this, to be bound and tied was completely different. I couldn’t even begin to break free.

He hadn’t moved, but my body was rising as nerves and arousal bloomed, anticipation bringing a delectable thrill.

“Ah, baby,” he said, his face softening. “We’re going to have so much fun.”

“I never answered,” I said.

He smirked. “Em, your pussy is creaming, and your sweet scent is ripening the air.” His filthy words kicked off a heavy thud of arousal between my thighs. His big hand splayed over my tummy, making me clench.

“Do you want me to restrain you, baby, while I punish you?”

My breathing turned ragged. “Yes.”

“Good, girl,” he said. “I think you need it. I think you’re the kind of brat that can’t stay still.”

The way he said brat held affection and hunger. Did he like that about me? Did he like it when I rebelled?

I wanted to say no and for him to make me…to force me. “I want a safe word,” I said, emboldened by the heat in his stormy gray eyes.

He nodded slowly. “Yes, if you want one.”

“And next time?” I whispered, hardly daring to hope.

His lips tugged up again. He was so sinfully handsome when he smiled.

He cupped my cheek and kissed me too briefly for my liking. “Yes, next time, too.”

His words became a balm over the prior hurt. This, whatever was happening between us, spanned more than now.

* * *

We agreed on a safe word, or in this case, words. Red meant stop immediately, yellow meant slow, green meant go. I liked that it was nice and simple, and given I was already sinking into the moment, I thought simple was good. He also said that if I got confused, I could also tell him to stop.

His eyes held mine. I often thought of them as stormy blue ones, but today, they appeared dark and moody as his hand fisted my hair and his lips lowered over mine, kissing me, tongues tangling. I groaned into his mouth, clutching his shoulders.

Impatient.

Needy.

Desperate for more.

I wanted his hands on me. I wanted to feel his cock sliding in and out of my pussy, to feel him over me, filling me.

When he brought the kiss to an end, we were both breathing heavily. He pressed his forehead to mine. “Get on the bed, on your back, and open your legs.”

Damn. Just that command and his husky voice sent a shiver rippling through my body.

I nearly fell off his lap in my haste. His dark chuckle followed as he rose from the bed, stripping everything except his jeans as he headed over to a dresser.

I stopped breathing as he peeled his T-shirt over his head and dropped it to the floor, my eyes riveted to the rippling expanse of tanned flesh, the enticing contours of his muscular back, presented for my view.

I had never seen a more beautiful man. There was so freaking much of him—Herculean shoulders, a tapered waist, ridges of thick muscle. The power in him was spellbinding.

He opened up a cupboard and took several things out, placing them on top of the nearby dresser with a clatter and clunk. There was something long and metal with what looked like cuffs at the end that defied my limited knowledge.

Then he turned around and tutted as his eyes landed on me. Walking over, he placed the items beside me. I couldn’t bring myself to look yet.

“Baby, you can do better than that. Open up for me.”

My breath hitched at his crude words, yet I felt the command.

He wanted me to open up so that he could look.

I didn’t think there was a woman on the planet who wasn’t self-conscious about her pussy on some level.

His expression was as stark and beautiful as his body.

He would wait for me to do this for as long as I needed.

Steeling myself, I pushed my knees a little wider.

My reward was a deep growl emanating from his chest as his eyes locked on the apex of my thighs.

“Perfect,” he said. “Every single thing about you is fucking perfect.”

His praise soothed my nerves, because I could tell he wasn’t making up a line. In his eyes, I was perfect.

“I like you like this,” he said, his gaze holding mine. “All spread open. I’m going to keep you that way.” Leaning over, he picked up the long metal pole that he placed on the bed. “This is called a spreader. I guess the name is self-explanatory.”

I fought the urge to clamp my legs shut. He was going to put that on me, and it would hold me open and vulnerable while he disciplined me with his belt. My eyes flashed to his.

“Do you want me to put the spreader onto you? Do you want to be held open? Can you do that for me?”

This wasn’t what I’d imagined when he mentioned restraints. Tying me to the bed maybe, but certainly nothing like this. My legs were wide. He would be able to see all of me once it was fitted in place. I wouldn’t have a choice and couldn’t shut my legs, even if I tried.

“Yes,” I said, knowing after our last time together that he needed the words.

“Good girl,” he said, placing it on the bed between my spread legs. On each side, there was a strap and buckle.

I thought he would begin straight away. Instead, he leaned in, capturing my chin in his strong hand, and gave me a deep, sexy kiss of tangled tongues and panted breath. I groaned into his mouth, wildly aroused, throbbing, and he’d barely touched me yet.

His head lifted, and he pinned me with a look. “Every time you do something like this, it takes you closer to your reward.” Returning to the bottom of the bed, he drew my legs apart. A groan escaped my lips as he eased them wider still, so that he could fit the bar between my feet.

I jerked, but Ryder held me still, a warm hand on each ankle.

“Easy, baby,” he said. “I won’t fit it until you’re ready.”

I sucked in great gulps of air, then nodded.

“Baby?”

“I’m okay,” I said. “Green. Please do it.”

He took his time about it, resting the cuff around my left ankle, letting me get used to the feel of it before he buckled it closed and repeating on the other side.

Then his hand enclosed the whole of it within a comforting weight.

His other hand caressed from my calf to my lower thigh, then back down again.

“Good girl,” he said. “How does that feel?”

I’d resisted the urge to try to close my legs, but now, and suddenly, I needed to. My knees tried to snap together, and a jolt of pure arousal hit me deep inside my pussy when I found that I couldn’t.

“Oh god.”

He grinned. “There we go.” His thumb drew a soothing circle against my ankle above the cuff. “Baby, we’re going to have so much fun. Now, I’m going to turn you over, then I’m going to attach these two cuffs to your wrists and the wrists to the bar.”